Japan Facts for Kids

Japan also known as the state of Japan. It is a sovereign island located in the Eastern part of Asia in the Pacific Ocean on the Asian Mainland’s east coast and extends from Okhotsk Sea in the north to southwest china and sea of eastern china.

The total land area is 377,915 sq km (145,936 sq miles)

The capital city is Tokyo which is also the largest city.

The total population of the country is 126,451,398 (est. in July 2017).

This is the tenth largest population in the world with the capital city “Tokyo”, being the largest city in the world.

The official language is Japanese.

The national anthem is “Kimigayo” (The Emperor’s Reign) which is the shortest anthem in the world as it has only 11 measure and 32 characters.

The national flower is chrysanthemum

The national sport is sumo wrestling, but baseball is the country’s most popular sport.

The people of japan are called Japanese and the major religion is Shinto with 51.82% and Buddhism 34.9% as other small fractions.

The currency used is called the Yen (¥)

The natural resources of the country are fish and negligible mineral resources.

The major industries are textiles, steel and non-ferrous metal, ships, machine tools, chemicals, electronic equipments and it is among the leading largest technological producers of motor vehicles.

Japan has more than 118 volcanoes and that makes more than 10% of the total number of volcanoes in the world and this is more than any country. The rate of suicide in the country is really high and in the first half of 2005, the number of birth was actually lower than the number of death with over 2000 people committing suicide by literally jumping into a volcano called Mount Mihara so the government have now built a fence around the volcano to stop the amount of suicide and the funny thing is that, there are only ever 2 gun related homicides reported every year.

On March 11, 2011; Japan declared its first ever nuclear emergency because of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, 20 km radius of the plant was evacuated with more than 140,000 residents leaving the vicinity.

About 1500 earthquakes happen every year in Japan and it is the reason, on May 06, 2011; Hamaoka Nuclear power plant was shut down as the surrounding area when the plant is operating was to be hit with 8.0 magnitude earthquake.

Inscribed ancient stone tablets with “do not build your homes below this point” were found in Japan when a tsunami hit the area in 2011.

Japan is known as an industrial nation that produces electronics, world class machines and vehicles with the world’s largest automobile producer. Toyota which is also a Japanese automobile company produces the third largest amount of vehicles. Even though, the country is considered an industrial nation, almost three quarters of the land cannot be utilized for farming, residential or industrial purposes. Japan is also known around the world for ASIMO (The world’s most advanced humanoid robot) and the main sphere of talent in the country is Robotics.

Comics and animated shows (anime) are something that Japanese really love and more papers are used on printing out comics than they are used for toilet paper. More animated shows are produced in Japan (about 60% of all animated shows) than anywhere else, making the country the leading producers in the entire world.

The country’s new maglev bullet train is said to be the world’s fastest train. Japan’s trains are also known as the most punctual in the world with the average time of delay being 18 seconds. Become of the fact there are a lot of people that use the train in the country, the train stations have staff members that push people into the train.

While walking, it is considered rude to be eating as well and it is also considered inappropriate to blow your nose.

The police regularly shoot fleeing motorists with paintballs not lead bullets so they can easily identify them on the roads of Japan.

About 90% of the mobile phones being used in Japan are water proof and there are more than 109,252,912 internet users in the country, making up roughly 3.75% of the people using internet in the world.